She had lashed him with her scorn,
and he had taken his whipping without much show of fight. Still, a
woman's love, especially that of a lady barbarian, was a curiously
complex affair, and had been known to impel her to trample on a
man one minute and the next to fall at his feet. Now the worm she
had trampled on had turned; stood erect as a properly
authenticated hero. I felt dubious as to the ensuing situation.
"I wrote to old Mrs. Boyce," she added after a while. "I thought
it only decent. I wrote yesterday, but only posted the letter to-
day, so as to be sure I wasn't acting on impulse."
The latter part of the remark was by way of apology. The breach of
the engagement had occasioned a cessation of social relations
between Betty and Mrs. Boyce. Betty's aunts had ceased calling on
Mrs. Boyce and Mrs. Boyce had ceased calling on Betty's aunts.
Whenever the estranged parties met, which now and then was
inevitable in a little town, they bowed with distant politeness,
but exchanged no words. Everything was conducted with complete
propriety. The old lady, knowing how beloved an intimate of mine
was Betty, alluded but once to the broken engagement.
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